New York, the city of great heights. Let's admire some buildings that were at one time the tallest!

Hotel Manhattan, 1922. The Hotel Manhattan was a 16-story structure completed in 1896 to the designs of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. At 250 feet tall, it was once (likely briefly) the tallest hotel structure in the world. It was crowned by a stately mansard roof. The hotel was demolished in 1961 and replaced in 1963 by a Kahn & Jacobs-designed glass tower.

Liggett Building, 1922. The Carrère and Hastings-designed Liggett Building was a commercial office building completed as part of the Terminal City development in 1922. Despite its first class architectural pedigree, the building itself was not a showy structure, given the firm's other major works. In 2016 the Liggett Building and four of its surrounding neighbors were razed in preparation for the construction of One Vanderbilt, a gargantuan, glassy skyscraper to be erect across Vanderbilt Avenue from Grand Central (it will rival the Empire State Building when completed). Whatever one's opinion on the new development, the removal of these five buildings did provide New Yorkers with something none of them had ever seen... an unobstructed view of the west facade of the venerable Terminal.